Climb up your ego! Narcissistic status pursuit and motivation to lead

The individual differences that affect the decision to engage in leadership positions represent a key aspect in understanding organizational outcomes. Even though narcissism is in the spotlight when we look at issues related to organizational leadership, empirical research on the relationship between narcissism, status pursuit and motivation to lead is scarce. The present study explored the relationship between particular aspects of narcissism, two status pursuit strategies (i.e., dominance and prestige) and motivation to lead, among a convenience sample composed mostly of university students (N = 1388). We tested several models to assess the effect of narcissism on motivation to lead, mediated by dominance and prestige status pursuit strategies. Results indicated that narcissism correlated with status pursuit strategies and motivation to lead types (i.e., affective-identity, social-normative, non-calculative, ideological and patriotic). Furthermore, mediation analyses revealed that narcissism had a significant indirect effect on motivation to lead via status pursuit strategies. The results of the present study suggest that narcissistic admiration and narcissistic rivalry had different relations with status pursuit strategies and motivation to lead types. The discussion focuses on the implications of narcissistic status pursuit on motivation to lead. •Narcissistic admiration correlated positive with status pursuit strategies•Narcissistic admiration and rivalry had different relations with motivation to lead•Narcissism had an indirect effect on MTL via status pursuit strategies•Proximal and distal characteristics of motivation to lead are discussed